The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and method for playing a game. The present invention also relates to an apparatus for moving game pieces during a game playing period and an associated method of playing the game.
Many games are designed to mentally stimulate and educate children. Specifically, these games attempt to exercise a child's memory while teaching him or her various fundamentals such as mathematics, spelling, geometry, or colors. The memory exercise associated with these games can involve a plurality of game pieces with each game piece having an indicia (e.g. a number) positioned thereon that is related to the subject matter being taught. One way of playing such games is to show a game piece and some indicia positioned thereon to a player (i.e. a child), and then place the game piece back among the other game pieces such that the indicia is no longer visible to the player. The player, after a certain amount of time, is then required to retrieve or identify the game piece he or she was previously shown. Playing these games in the above described manner exercises the child's memory and helps educate the child with respect to the subject matter being taught.
However, a problem with many of the games that involve the aforementioned educational and memory exercise is that they are not sufficiently entertaining to keep a child's interest. This lack of entertainment can be attributed to the static nature of the game. Furthermore, in a number of these existing games, it is possible for the child to associate a given indicia with a particular game piece due to a physical characteristic of the game piece. For example, if the game is attempting to teach mathematics to a player and a game piece associated with the number "seven" (7) gets scratched, the child will eventually be able to identify this game piece by the scratch rather than through the intended manner defined by the rules of the game. This problem decreases the value of the educational and memory exercise, and contributes to the child losing interest in the game.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.